If you’re swapping gas for electric, adding an EV charger, or putting in solar and a battery, the honest answer is: maybe, and your switchboard is what decides it. Many newer Perth homes are fine, but a lot of boards installed more than ~15–20 years ago simply weren’t built for today’s loads. The quickest way to know is our free switchboard check; below is what’s actually going on.
Why the switchboard is the bottleneck
Every electric appliance you add has to land somewhere on your board, and most of the big ones want a dedicated circuit:
- Induction cooktop: its own ~32A circuit
- Heat-pump or electric hot water: a dedicated circuit
- EV charger: a 7kW charger needs its own circuit, and often three-phase power
- Ducted or reverse-cycle air-con: high, continuous draw
- Home battery: needs spare physical space on the board and compliant protection
Stack two or three of those onto an older single-phase board and you can run out of spare ways (room for new circuits), exceed the main-switch rating, or trip the supply. That’s not a fault; it’s a board doing its job at a capacity it was never sized for.
Signs you’ll likely need an upgrade first
- Ceramic fuses instead of circuit breakers
- No safety switches (RCDs) on your power and lighting circuits
- A full board with no spare ways for new circuits
- It already trips when the kettle, heater or air-con run together
- Scorch marks, a burning smell, or a board that’s visibly very old
Any one of those is worth sorting before you spend money on appliances that the board can’t safely run.
What an upgrade involves
A compliant switchboard upgrade gives you a modern enclosure, RCD protection on every circuit, correctly sized breakers, optional surge protection, and tidy wiring to the current AS/NZS 3000 Wiring Rules, plus the WA electrical safety certificate paperwork lodged where the job requires it. If the work touches the meter or consumer mains it involves the network side, which we coordinate with the network distributor.
In Perth, an upgrade typically runs $1,500–$3,500. See our switchboard upgrade cost guide and pricing page for the detail.
The simplest next step
Run the switchboard-readiness check; it takes about 30 seconds and tells you whether to book an assessment. Or just request a callback and we’ll talk through what you’re planning and what your board can take.